Culture in FranceFrance is a hub of culture, and of all kinds of art. Whether in Paris or beyond, Culture in France, relays the latest performance events.
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ENRFIThu, 18 Jan 2018 11:29:45 +0100RFInoRevamped Chaillot brings Norway to Parishttp://en.rfi.fr/20180117-chaillot-uplifted
Culture in France presented by RFI's Rosslyn Hyams visits a revamped theatre space in the Palais de Chaillot opposite the Eiffel Tower in Paris where a Norwegian dance season opens this January.
Rosslyn HyamsCulture in France presented by RFI's Rosslyn Hyams visits a revamped theatre space in the Palais de Chaillot opposite the Eiffel Tower in Paris where a Norwegian dance season opens this ... 10:0D01FC134-F031-47D8-A477-08A231048AA4Wed, 17 Jan 2018 07:37:00 +0100noFrench cinema goes online with 'My French Film Festival'http://en.rfi.fr/20180125-my-french-fim-festival
From January 19th to February 22nd, a wide range of French feature length and short movies are available for viewing online via local platforms, free of charge in many regions of the world, or for a small fee in others. In this week's Culture in France, RFI's Rosslyn Hyams reports on the event called, 'My French Film Festival'.
'My French Film Festival' is France's annual, month-long online film festival. Last year seven million viewers across the world from the Americas to China were able to watch French films which released in the previous year in France.
Usually French films can only be seen outside of cinema theatres or Alliance Française French culture centres abroad, after three years.
'My French Film Festival' is now eight years-old, and offers a selection of about 30 films, features, shorts (available for free) and a documentary. This year, it also includes a few classics as well as a competition, which has an audience award. Ten French feature films and ten French shorts are competing.
Among the selection is Guillaume Canet's Rock n 'Roll - a successful comedy starring Marion Cotillard, and with an appearance by the late Johnny Halliday. There is also Ava, a first feature by Léa Mysius which premièred at the Critic's Week in Cannes in May 2017, and The Last Metro - François Truffaut's memorable 1980 wartime drama starring Catherine Deneuve and Gérard Dépardieu.
For details of how to access the festival which is open to all click here.
Rosslyn HyamsFrom January 19th to February 22nd, a wide range of French feature length and short movies are available for viewing online via local platforms, free of charge in many regions of the world, or for a ... 10:26299B9B0-62AA-498A-A274-0C679FC5FE81Mon, 01 Jan 2018 03:00:00 +0100noLa Monnaie de Paris reopens as a stylish factory museumhttp://en.rfi.fr/culture/20171115-La-Monnaie-de-Paris-reopens-stylish-factory-museum
La Monnaie de Paris, the French national Mint, on the banks of the River Seine in Paris, reopened this autumn... in style. RFI's Rosslyn Hyams reports on a new Parisian museum in this week's Culture in France.
Rosslyn HyamsLa Monnaie de Paris, the French national Mint, on the banks of the River Seine in Paris, reopened this autumn... in style. 10:07F95F4A4-0AC3-4836-A7CD-6F7DA3C54A6AWed, 15 Nov 2017 07:37:00 +0100noParis kids' film festival breaks down generational barriershttp://en.rfi.fr/culture/20171101-paris-kids-film-festival-Paris-breaks-down-generational-barriers
Cinema can break down the barriers between generations. Mon Premier Festival, or My First Festival opened last week with Rachid Hami's La Mélodie (The Orchestra Class) and ended last night with a classic for all ages, Jacques Tati's 1949, Jour de Fête. Both films are particularly sound-rich.
Véronique Boursier chair of the association behind the event which throws in a couple of ciné-concerts for the youngsters said, "The live music during silent films is contemporary and lots of fun. We shouldn’t forget that cinema is also about listening."
The festival jury whose members were between seven and 11 years of age, chose Danish animation film From Next Door Spy, by Karla von Bengston, the Audience Award went to Belle and Sébastien 3: the final chapter by French director Clovis Cornillac.
RFI's Rosslyn Hyams reports on this Parisian film festival that draws in locals from age 2 to 122.
Rosslyn HyamsCinema can break down the barriers between generations. 10:081020082-0BF2-400F-8CDF-06C319AB8A7CWed, 01 Nov 2017 07:37:00 +0100noColombia gets culture booster in France http://en.rfi.fr/culture/20171011-how-culture-brings-colombia-and-france-closer-together
Culture in France this week looks at the cultural exchange between France and Colombia, France's partner country in the 2017-2018 bilateral exchange event.
The programme includes events all over France, not just in Paris. Ongoing, a contemporary art exhibition till the end of January 2018 in Toulouse in south-west France called Medellin, a contemporary history from the 1950s till today.
RFI's Rosslyn Hyams reports on some of the events which brings Colombian culture closer.
Rosslyn HyamsCulture in France this week looks at the cultural exchange between France and Colombia, France's partner country in the 2017-2018 bilateral exchange event.
The programme includes events all over ... 11:18DB344460-7AF2-4377-A083-1B27720D5A1DWed, 11 Oct 2017 08:37:00 +0200noJack London from South Pacific to Marseillehttp://en.rfi.fr/culture/20170920-Exhibit-Jack-London-dans-les-mers-du-Sud-Marseille
American adventurer and writer Jack London and his wife Charmian set off from California in 1907 to tour the world. RFI's Rosslyn Hyams follows their journey in the then-well-hidden South Pacific in a new exhibition in the French port of Marseille.
The exhibit Jack London dans les mers du Sud (Jack London in the South Seas) will run from 8 September, 2017 to 7 January, 2018 at the Centre de la Vieille Charité in Marseille, France.
Rosslyn HyamsAmerican adventurer and writer Jack London and his wife Charmian set off from California in 1907 to tour the world. 11:1537932458-8D8B-4F5C-A83E-4E4E4D0EF31DWed, 20 Sep 2017 08:37:00 +0200noAgnès B.'s art collection, Anselm Kieffer, Leila Alaoui and Keith Haring in Avignonhttp://en.rfi.fr/culture/20170913-agnes-b-art-collection-show-avignon
No fewer than four exhibitions have been drawing crowds to Avignon's contemporary art hang-out, the Collection Lambert. Hundreds of works collected by French fashion designer Agnès B, images by photographer Leïla Alaoui, 30 of Keith Haring's paintings and painted objects, and a rarely exposed piece by Anselm Kieffer, The Secret Life of Plants.
French fashion designer Agnès B is also famous as an art collector and gallery owner. Her collection is eclectic and as international as she herself has become over the years.
Collection Lambert director Eric Mézil describes his selection as a large-scale, multi-faceted mirror-portrait of her.
He has picked out 400 photos, sculptures, paintings, collages, videos and installations belonging to Agnès B. One entire room is dedicated to works by African artists she has collected.
"The exhibition is laid out by theme," Ilbar explains. "The theme is different, Africa or childhood etcetera, but in each theme-room you will find the same ideas - youth, love and commitment."
Some of the artists were edgy when Agnès B picked them out, helped to set them up, and she understands their struggles.
"I take 'pictures' which I use on my clothes, which I've been doing for more than 10 years now," she comments. "But I'm not a photographer. It's hard to be a photographer today. Everyone, absolutely everyone, takes pictures or photographs."
Tribute to photographer who died in terror attack
Penetrating portrait by the late photographer Leïla Alaoui are concurrently on display. The exhibition called "Je te pardonne" (I forgive you) is a tribute to the young Franco-Moroccan woman born in 1982 and killed in terror attacks in Ougadougou, Burkina Faso, in January 2016.
Alaoui happens to be one of Agnès B.'s finds.
An Alaoui film installation shows images of the Mediterranean Sea alternating with clips of migrants speaking in French, English or other languages.
Thirty of Keith Haring's huge, vibrant and poignant, primary-coloured and black-outlined active works have been loaned from from private collections, and a landmark piece, Secret Life of Plants, by German nature sculptor-painter Anselm Kieffer, who now lives in France, is visiting from the Parisian Georges Pompidou Centre's 40th anniversary events, which involve many museums and art centres all over France this year.
Benefactor Yvon Lambert helped the Pompidou Centre acquire the work in 2003. It is a fragile and has been rarely shown in public.
All four exhibitions are on display until 5 November at the Collection Lambert in Avignon.
Rosslyn HyamsNo fewer than four exhibitions have been drawing crowds to Avignon's contemporary art hang-out, the Collection Lambert. 9:533AE5F404-362D-4523-9E16-D4088D662C8EWed, 13 Sep 2017 08:37:00 +0200noVisa Pour l'Image photo festival 'a necessary eye-opener'http://en.rfi.fr/culture/20170906-visa-pour-limage
In this week's Culture in France, we head down to the Visa Pour l'Image international photojournalism festival in Perpignan on the French Mediterranean coast.
Jean-François Leroy established the festival in 1989. He told RFI’s Rosslyn Hyams that this event is like an oasis for the news photographers, as well as a necessary eye-opener for all visitors.
Rosslyn HyamsIn this week's Culture in France, we head down to the Visa Pour l'Image international photojournalism festival in Perpignan on the French Mediterranean ... 10:0F1E2F9B7-3EBE-48A4-9BE8-6919CFC59323Wed, 06 Sep 2017 08:37:00 +0200noAvignon Festival international and challenging in its 71st yearhttp://en.rfi.fr/culture/20170719-Avignon-Festival-international-and-challenging-its-71st-year
The Avignon Festival, France's large yet discreet annual performing arts event, persists with its international scope as well as challenging theatrical subject matter and form. In 2017, more space than usual is reserved for artists from Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Festival capitalises on growing female exposure in the arts world.
The Avignon Festival's grande finale in the mediaeval Popes' Palace on 26th July puts women and Sub-Saharan African artists to the fore.
This year, the Festival has chosen to close in the open-air Courtyard of the Pope's Palace with Beninoise contemporary singer, Angélique Kidjo, a favourite in France and Ivorian actor Isaach de Bankolé (who performed in the Festival twice in the 1980s) accompanied by other artists including Manu Dibango.
Their stage tribute called Femme Noire (Black Woman) is to late Senegalese poet and politician, Leopold Senghor, and is based on Senghor's poem Elegy for the Queen of Saba of 1979.
In 2017, the programme includes several African choreographers' work in the Sujet à Vif section, but also in new forms of mixed stagecraft like Rwandan Dorothée Munyneza's Unwanted.
From Soweto, South Africa, Boyzie Cekwana serves up The Last King of Kakfontein (Shit Fountain) with dance, forgotten popular music of South Africa and video, as a critique of the type of politics "which have in the last decade given rise to populism in many countries. The populists strategy is to silence dissidents. In my view, it's no different from Germany in the 1930s," he told the Festival.
Vocals star Rokia Troaré from Mali presents Dream Mandé Djata as part of the Sub-Saharan focus from 21 to 24 July. She uses Mandingo traditional songs to tell the story of a 13th century West African emperor Soundiata Keita.
Kalakuta Republic unites former French-speaking and English-speaking Africa through the songs of the great Nigerian Beat artist Fela Kuti, which constitute the core of Burkina Faso's Serge Aimé Coulibaly for his dance piece. It's title is taken from the name Kuti gave to his home in a suburb of Lagos.
In 2013, the Avignon Festival programmed a special Africa focus which included Congolese writer, director, performer, Dieudonné Niagouna. And for five years, daytime readings of the works of African writers take place in one of the lovely gardens in the city, organised by RFI,called Ca va, ça va le Monde!.
They are in French and will be re-broadcast on RFI's French programmes once a week from the end of July through August.
The emphasis on the contribution of women artists both today and yesterday is evident. Another closing piece is called Vaille que Vivre (loosely translated it means 'live, no matter what').
It's dedicated to the great late popular French singer, Barbara (1930-1997), to celebrate her life and her passing 20 years ago. It stars Alexander's Tharaud's piano and actress Juliette Binoche's voice and person.
Binoche is one of France's best known actresses abroad, starring in several films in English, not least of all the nurse alongside Ralph Fiennes in Anthony Mingella's The English Patient adapted from Michael Ondatjee's novel, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, based on Milan Kundera's story where she and Daniel-Day Lewis are the leads and Abbas Kiarostami's, Certified Copy.
In the same way as Binoche, the Avignon Festival is nowadays marked by being both distinctly French and yet international.
In the same way as Binoche, it takes up challenges, theatrical ones, and shares them with eager and curious, and even culturally courageous audiences.
Perhaps the furthest flung artists from France, come from the antipodes and from Latin America. Samoan-New Zealander Lemi Ponifasio works with Maori aboriginal women from his country and Mapuche women from Chili.
Standing in Time, is performed in an old, and solidly built school courtyard in Avignon. The nine-women on stage perform a piece incorporating traditional chant and dance in a largely open space, with lighting that gradually takes the spectators' eyes upwards, to the sky and the stars.
Ponifasio makes the spectators part of their creation but we have to work for it.
"The most important thing is that I am reporting where I have come to in the world. I try to bring the audience to find the silence within themselves. It's not worth understanding because that is what already exists, the audience have to let go, to be part of the creation of something new."
Ponifasio's work is rooted in Maori or Mapuche culture where the women sing in their mother-tongue and use wrist-strenghtening poi balls so that it looks more like a juggling performance than a traditional practice. However it hits the broader spot when he and the magnificent poetesses on stage, allude to justice and harmony and make time stand still.
After the Avignon Festival the international work of the artists is not over. They go on tour with their plays or dance pieces often elsewhere in France, and on the Festival circuit as well as in their home countries.
Rosslyn HyamsThe Avignon Festival, France's large yet discreet annual performing arts event, persists with its international scope as well as challenging theatrical subject matter and form. 10:5752CFD0C6-953F-4F62-84E6-ACE5F2AACA43Wed, 19 Jul 2017 08:37:00 +0200noCentre National de la Danse goes Camping - but it's not what you thinkhttp://en.rfi.fr/culture/20170712-camping-centre-national-de-la-danse
France's National Dance Center (CND) opens its studios and halls to choreographers and dance students once a year in an exercise called Camping, which as become a festival. RFI's Rosslyn Hyams speaks to the CND's director and one of the featured choreographers in this year's event, Simon Mayer from Austria.
Rosslyn HyamsFrance's National Dance Center (CND) opens its studios and halls to choreographers and dance students once a year in an exercise called Camping, which as become a festival. 10:03C222D45-DC30-4621-9D1E-691EAA267F21Wed, 12 Jul 2017 08:37:00 +0200noIndependent US films in the spotlight at the Champs-Elysées Film Festivalhttp://en.rfi.fr/culture/20170705-independent-french-and-us-films-highly-exposed-champs-elysees-film-festival
The Champs-Elysées Film Festival brings together old and new movies from France and the US with the accent on independent US filmmakers. RFI's Rosslyn Hyams tells us more in this week's look at the arts scene in France.
Folk from the film world in France take little or no rest. No sooner had the Cannes Film Festival wrapped up at the end of May than the animation film specialists headed off to Annecy in the east of France for a dedicated event in early June.
Romantic films were the theme of the 34-year-old festival in Cabourg in Normandy in mid-June, while the Trouville Cult Films Festival - also in mid-June - is in its second year and is building a following.
In Paris, the number of film festivals explodes in June.
The slickest is the Champs-Elysées Film Festival where cinemas houses on and just off the Avenue share in the fun arising from a programme of new and old French and US independent movies.
The top prize, the American Independent Jury Award, went to The Strange Ones directed by Lauren Wolkstein and Christopher Radcliff.
The first-time prize to a French independent film went to Jeune Femme (Montparnasse Bienvenüe) whose director Léonor Serraille won the Golden Camera for best first feature at Cannes in May 2017.
Jean of the Joneses by Stella Mehghie won a special mention from the Jury and the audience award for an American film. The audience chose Loïc Paillard's Les étoiles restantes - The Remaining Stars as their favourite French feature film.
The French release of Jean of the Joneses will be eagerly awaited as Meghie's second feature also stole the heart of US magazine Variety which also donates an award at the festival.
The French equivalent award is from subtitling firm Titra whichchose Paillard's debut feature film out of 6 French films in the competition this year.
At this festival, too, especially because of its US tie, the Netflix polemic raised by the Cannes film festival was fresh in people's minds.
The festival had selected two films actually produced by the US movie internet platform Netflix - Okja directed by Bong joon-ho stars British actress Tilda Swinton and US hero Jake Gyllenhal, and The Meyerowitz Stories, has US veteran Dustin Hoffman in the lead role supported, by British actress Emma Thomson.
Netflix films intends to keep their in-house productions for small-screen home-viewing only.
In France, current regulations require new feature films to be shown exclusively for several years in cinemas, before being authorised for home-viewing or on TV.
Each country applies its own waiting time, but France is the most strict.
The French authorities as well as producers and distributors views on the subject differ, but a general sense prevails that all parties must find a way to serve their own specific interests and the mutual ones which make France a special place for film.
Sophie Dulac said: "Netflix has only about 1.4 million audience in France today. It should have its' place, but we need regulations, and we need to take the time to think about them and the sort of conditions which are necessary. It shouldn't happen in the way it could have in Cannes."
At Cannes in May 2017, the fear was that an online-only film would have actually won a prize and never have been screened in public again.
As well as depriving audiences of big screen excitement, it would also have cut out all the distributors and halls which survive directly or indirectly on a percentage of physical box-office takings.
Netflix is threatening to be a culture changer, in a similar way to the arrival of the mutliplexes which swallowed up many independent or smaller cinema chains.
However, the multiplex groups in France, notably MK2, make space for and even produce art-house or independent movies.
Rosslyn HyamsThe Champs-Elysées Film Festival brings together old and new movies from France and the US with the accent on independent US filmmakers. 10:0178D182E-9BD3-4D9C-8DB8-219649040CF2Wed, 05 Jul 2017 08:37:00 +0200noConceptual artists Almendra and Nyandoro at Paris' Palais de Tokyohttp://en.rfi.fr/culture/20170625-conceptual-artits-almendra-and-nyandoro-paris-palais-de-tokyo
In this week’s look at the art scene in France, RFI’s Rosslyn Hyams meets conceptual artists Wilfrid Almendra from France and Gareth Nyandoro from Zimbabwe whose solo works are part of the Parisian Palais de Tokyo’s summer exhibitions.
Almendra has created an evolving space tailored for children, Light Boiled in Liquid Soap, which will be in situ for three years. In Stalls of Fame Nyandoro crafts paper and wooden boxes, which are one of the French capital’s visual identity.
In this week’s look at the art scene in France, RFI’s Rosslyn Hyams meets conceptual artists Wilfrid Almendra from France and Gareth Nyandoro from Zimbabwe whose solo works are part of ... 10:30663A098D-9CB2-4356-9A6B-BB65DF7AAE25Sun, 25 Jun 2017 04:00:00 +0200noCentenary events in Paris show great French sculptor Auguste Rodin's secret of immortalityhttp://en.rfi.fr/culture/20170614-centenary-events-paris-show-great-french-sculptor-auguste-rodins-secret-immortality
Queues to see the sensual works of sculptor Auguste Rodin at Hôtel Biron in Paris are usually long in any season. This year they are longer as the Rodin Museum is leading the events to commemorate the 100th year of the artist's death.
His creative and for the time, daring, genius brought marble, bronze and less noble materials - plaster and terra-cotta - to life in his sculptures such as the Burgers of Calais, or the hive of characters in the Gates of Hell, a tribute to the Italian writer Dante Alghieri, at the top of which sits one of Rodin's most replicated works, The Thinker.
At the Musée Rodin, a retrospective of his work in the main house shows his work process, his drawings, watercolours, plaster and terracotta as well as objets d'art from his private collection.
In the former chapel in the grounds of the Museum-mansion, German artist, Anselm Keifer exhibits works he created while in residence at the Hôtel Biron, inspired by Rodin's illustrated book of 1914, The Cathedrals of France.
Keifer's work is often monumental, whether in tall glass cases or exposed. Like Rodin, Keifer who was born about a century after Rodin, explores all kinds of materials for their relief and their vibe.
"Keifer-Rodin - Cathédrales" which closes in October 2017 reveals a significant bond between the two important artists.
Véronique Mattiussi, in charge of archives and history at the Musée Rodin says "visitors who meander through the exhibition will be able to see different aspects in Rodin's work."
At the Grand Palais, the "Rodin Centenary Exhibition", places Rodin's works next to artists who worked in his highly productive workshop in the late 19th and early 20th century, and who went on to earn their own international reputations.
The works themselves are arresting for their beauty and because Rodin had a gift for creating the illusion that he infused stone and metal with human feelings.
Their juxtaposition to more recent sculptures in bronze, marble or even wood, shows how Rodin's works transmit his acute sense of emotions, from one artists to another, over the decades.
The Rodin Centenary puts the artist at the centre of exhibitions, and of films with Jacques Doillon's biopic about a period at the end of his relationship with sculptress Camille Claudel, 'Rodin' starring Vincent Lindon, as well as two new documentaries on his work and the social and political period which nourished it.
Coincindentally or not, Claudel's life history and work is also getting a boost this year. The Camille Claudel Museum opened in March 2017 in Nogent-sur-Seine, in the east of France, about 110 kilometres from Paris.
Rosslyn HyamsQueues to see the sensual works of sculptor Auguste Rodin at Hôtel Biron in Paris are usually long in any season. 10:016B6C9E5-30CC-430D-AA00-7DF0BAD06338Wed, 14 Jun 2017 08:37:00 +0200noIndonesia's Mouly Surya talks about Marlina the Murderer in 4 Actshttp://en.rfi.fr/culture/20170524-cannes-Indonesian-director-Mouly-Surya
For this week's look at the Arts in France, we go to the 70th Cannes Film Festival. RFI's Rosslyn Hyams talks to Indonesian director Mouly Surya about her third film which is in the programme at the Director's Fortnight, one of the parallel sections.
Rosslyn Hyams in CannesFor this week's look at the Arts in France, we go to the 70th Cannes Film Festival. 10:02FD31FF7-2867-45C2-8B99-A0A284507E81Wed, 24 May 2017 08:37:00 +0200noCelebrating art history and historians at Château de Fontainebleauhttp://en.rfi.fr/culture/20170517-art-history-festival-fontainebleau
In this week’s Culture in France, RFI’s Rosslyn Hyams goes to the forest of Fontainebleau, where art historians are preparing plenty of surprises to mark the beginning of June for the 7th Art History Festival around the theme of nature, with this year's guest country: the United States.
Rosslyn HyamsIn this week’s Culture in France, RFI’s Rosslyn Hyams goes to the forest of Fontainebleau, where art historians are preparing plenty of surprises to mark the beginning of June for the ... 10:01977E35E-2CEB-4273-AEEE-2524AC7BF156Wed, 17 May 2017 08:37:00 +0200noUsing theatre to promote peace and neutralise extreme nationalismhttp://en.rfi.fr/culture/20170510-using-theatre-promote-peace-and-neutralize-extreme-nationalism
In this week’s Art in France, RFi’s Rosslyn Hyams meets young director Justine Wojyniak who has staged a recent Polish play in French with an international cast.
Our Class or Notre Classe at the Epée de Bois in Vincennes, takes place mainly in a village in Poland, and spans seventy years from the pre-World War Two years of the 1930s and up to the early two thousands. It’s about preserving peace and the undesirable effects of nationalism.
Rosslyn HyamsIn this week’s Art in France, RFi’s Rosslyn Hyams meets young director Justine Wojyniak who has staged a recent Polish play in French with an international cast.
10:32F18B8BCD-4428-4FA8-ABB9-CB39819411C6Wed, 10 May 2017 04:00:00 +0200noDoisneau: The Vogue Years exhibitionhttp://en.rfi.fr/culture/20170503-Doisneau-Vogue-Years-exhibition
Robert Doisneau is one of France's best-loved 20th century photographers. Doisneau: The Vogue Years exhibition at Versailles shows the artist's initimitable flair for capturing magic moments even if he's better known for his portraits in the streets of Paris, and its suburbs than in ballrooms and chateaux. RFI's Rosslyn Hyams speaks to Doisneau's daughter and granddaughter.
Rosslyn HyamsRobert Doisneau is one of France's best-loved 20th century photographers. 10:06813DB2C-91AA-4878-9B6F-CBD80234867BWed, 03 May 2017 08:37:00 +0200noFemininity in the Alicia Koplowitz collection at Jacquemart-André in Parishttp://en.rfi.fr/france/20170315-culture-france-femininity-alicia-koplowitz-collection
In this week's look at the arts in France, RFI's Rosslyn Hyams discovers part of a private painting and sculpture collection with a distinctly feminine touch.
Rosslyn HyamsIn this week's look at the arts in France, RFI's Rosslyn Hyams discovers part of a private painting and sculpture collection with a distinctly feminine touch.
10:842E58925-B175-4004-B4EE-A81D4B6102D9Wed, 15 Mar 2017 07:37:00 +0100noFledgling Russian cinema festival attracts crowds with music, song and the 1917 Revolutionhttp://en.rfi.fr/culture/20170308-fledgling-russian-cinema-festival-attracts-crowds-music-song-and-1917-revolution
The 3rd Festival of Russian Film in Paris challenges film buffs to take in an almost 100-year panorama of Russian and Soviet cinema through 30 features and six short films in just nine days. The festival organisers say that five thousand spectators attended in total, up from 3,400 last year.
This year's winners were Pavel Lungin's 2016 The Queen of Spades in the feature category and Soul Sister won the short film prize which takes the director Pavla Stratoulat on an expenses paid trip to France's main short-film meet in Clermont Ferrand.
Professor Jean Radvanyi and the team concocted an attractive mix for anyone who is curious about films, film history, Soviet and more recent Russian history, as well as those simply curious about what tickles Russians at the cinema. Among the musicals they chose was a popular film made in 1956 called Carnaval Night, directed by Eldar Riazanov. Some of the other films are not musicals as such, either Hollywood-inspired or with a stronger local flavour, but songs or music are a part of their plot. Like Pavel Lungin's 2016 The Queen of Spades, after Pushkin's story and the Tchaikovsky opera of the same name. Also the 1962 film Cheremushki by Vienna-born Herbert Rappaport, whose musical score is the work of Dimitri Shostakovich.
As it is the centenary of the Russian revolution which spawned the Soviet Union, one of the cinema halls, the Christine 21, offered a seven-film focus on the 1917 Revolutions. It was a retrospective starting with Sergei Eisenstein's The Strike, made in 1924, and following up with several films made in the 1960s, and one film, The Admiral by Andrey Kravchuk, which was made in 2008, a generation after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
The screenings were often sold out a day before the show. Silver Lion for Best Director at the 73rd Venice Film Festival, La Mostra last year, Andrei Konchalovsky's Paradis drama was one of the films in competition. It was shown at La Grande Action cinema and attracted Paris-based Russians avid for a chance to see new or recent films in their own language and to catch a glimpse of the veteran Soviet and Russian writer and director whose career spans 50 years.
For the first time, the festival -- which is sponsored by French and Russian private and public interests -- ran competitions for best feature whose prize, donated by Russian energy giant Gazprom, goes to assisting the winning film's distribution in cinema halls and best short film.
Rosslyn HyamsThe 3rd Festival of Russian Film in Paris challenges film buffs to take in an almost 100-year panorama of Russian and Soviet cinema through 30 features and six short films in just nine days. 12:1273328323-F2FE-4359-86DD-0275BCFD0D3BWed, 08 Mar 2017 07:37:00 +0100noFour cities star in Indian Express, a film programme with urban pull at Paris's Forum des Imageshttp://en.rfi.fr/culture/20170208-four-cities-star-indian-express-film-programme-urban-pull-pariss-forum-des-images
Rosslyn Hyams reports on the Forum des Images film centre's 2017 City Series and its programme of movies and events featuring four cities in India.
Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkota and New Delhi feature in movies from Indian and French directors being shown at Paris City Hall's film library, the Forum des Images, until the end of February 2017.
The Indian Express cycle of 60 films about or shot in some of India’s major cities include some of the colourful and dramatic commercial films, like Ashutosh Gowariker’s Jodhaa Akbar starring Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan and Rhithik Roshan.
The rich and diverse event kicked off with an older film called Pyaasa – Thirsty, 1957, directed by and starring Guru Dutt and heroines of the fifties and sixties like Waheeda Rahman. The film tells the tale of a highly romantic but down-and-out poet whose work is discovered by a prostitute. In this film the love songs are sung in duets.
The 60 films selected for Indian Express cover a large range of films with those urban stories dating from the 1950s filmed in studios up to today, art-house films, documentaries and animation films. In some of the more recent films set in Mumbai or Delhi for example, directors like Anurag Kashyap, Amit Kumar or Kanu Behl shoot their psychological dramas or gangster films in derelict or construction sites or new luxury apartment blocks on the outskirts of the cities.
Indian Express also includes some films made in Indian cities by French directors. “These films help our Parisian audiences make a connection with cinema which is very far from them,” said Laurence Briot of the Forum des Images, who curated the event.
As broad as the scope of this cycle is, the time and space limits are a source of frustration. Briot confides with a hint of regret that “we have had to leave some films out and there are surely others we didn’t know about. There are so many!”
Beyond the films and to enhance the experience, the Forum des Images has organised meetings with Indian directors who come to talk about their films, film-making and Indian society today, such as actress-director Nandita Das and animation director, Gitanjali Rao.
Indian cinema, past and present
India’s more than one-hundred-year-old cinema industry has been established for years as the most prolific.
The most popular films are those known now as Bollywood, which has become a genre in its own right; the film lasts three hours, a handful of top-billed stars play the main roles, and at least one dance scene will be a hip-thrusting chorus usually choreographed by A.R. Rehman.
More than a thousand films are made in India per year for the big screen. And they are seen by an increasing number of people all over the world, thanks to new technologies.
Rosslyn HyamsRosslyn Hyams reports on the Forum des Images film centre's 2017 City Series and its programme of movies and events featuring four cities in India.
10:8BF8A2793-A5C0-4DCA-BB39-F178E5B4C3EAWed, 08 Feb 2017 07:37:00 +0100no